Ramblings from the creator of HomeSite, TopStyle, FeedDemon and Glassboard Android.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

The End of NewsGator Sync: What it Means for FeedDemon Customers

Today NewsGator announced that their consumer synchronization platform will no longer be available as of August 31, 2009. Rather than re-hash the announcement here, I invite you to read it on NewsGator's official company blog. There's also an FAQ which addresses most of the questions about this announcement.

So how will this impact you if you're a FeedDemon customer who relies on NewsGator sync? Honestly, this shouldn't have much impact on you. FeedDemon 3.0 still offers syncrhonization - – but instead of synching with NewsGator, it syncs with Google Reader.

The first time you run FeedDemon 3.0, you'll be asked whether to convert your NewsGator subscriptions to Google Reader subscriptions. Once the conversion completes, FeedDemon will sync with Google Reader instead of NewsGator.

If you're among the few customers who created synched clippings in FeedDemon, your clippings will no longer be synched after the conversion, and the RSS feed for your synched clippings will no longer update. However, prior to the end of NewsGator sync, we'll provide a way to redirect your synched clippings feed so that anyone subscribed to it will be unaffected by the change. Most of you will want to redirect to your Google Reader shared items feed (here's mine) since FeedDemon 3.0 includes the ability to copy articles to your Google Reader shared items.

What does this mean for the future of FeedDemon? For the record I want to make it clear that FeedDemon's lifespan won't be cut short by this change. FeedDemon (and NetNewsWire, for that matter) continues to have a very bright future. I'm excited about being able to take full advantage of the power of Google Reader sync.

The Google Reader team has been making some interesting moves lately which enable me to take FeedDemon where I've long wanted it to go. If you're a FeedDemon customer, I think you're going to love where FeedDemon will take you now that it's tied to Google Reader instead of NewsGator.

@John West: There isn't a version of FeedDemon for Windows Mobile. If you mean NewsGator's Windows Mobile client, then no, there's no more Consumer support for that after August. See item #4 in the FAQ (linked above).

Hi,
If I understand it correctly, all unread items will be marked as read after the conversion? Is there a chance of RC4 keep the read/unread status on Google Reader? What about tags and follow-up flags?

I can't say I'm happy with this move, but better this way than no alternative at all.

How do you setup a second machine to sync with Google Reader? I've already updated to 3rc3 and then converted all my feeds to GReader on one machine. Now I want to get my other machines to sync to Reader as well.

Do I "Convert to Google Reader" on the two of them too? If I convert there, I won't get duplicates in my Reader will I? (I subscribe to 1,200 feeds so cleaning up duplicates would really bite ;)

I know I'm supposed to post this on the forum, but even though I am registered, it keeps telling me I don't have permission. So before I go jump off a bridge, can you please clarify this statement:

"If you're among the few customers who created synched clippings in FeedDemon, your clippings will no longer be synched after the conversion, and the RSS feed for your synched clippings will no longer update. However, prior to the end of NewsGator sync, we'll provide a way to redirect your synched clippings feed so that anyone subscribed to it will be unaffected by the change. Most of you will want to redirect to your Google Reader shared items feed (here's mine) since FeedDemon 3.0 includes the ability to copy articles to your Google Reader shared items."

It appears that we can no longer enable the "share as an RSS feed" option in FD for a clippings folder. But when you say, "However, prior to the end of NewsGator sync, we'll provide a way to redirect your synched clippings feed so that anyone subscribed to it will be unaffected by the change," does this mean that we can continue to add content to our existing clippings folders, and subscribers to the feeds from these folders will continue to see new content?

Also, is there a way to create multiple "Google Reader shared items" folders (like the clippings folders in FD), e.g. "shared items A", "shared items B" and so on... I heavily relied on the clippings in FD to bin items into topic-specific shared RSS feeds, but it looks like there is no way to do this in Google; i.e. all shared items go into one shared feed.

@Alberto Silva No, your unread counts should be just fine. Early betas had a problem with this, but it's been fixed for a few months now.

@Greg Duncan No, you will not get duplicates. I have converted FeedDemon to Google Reader sync on multiple PCs. I've never ended up with duplicate subscriptions.

@Roberta Google Reader provides support for RSS feeds for tags. Basically, your Shared Items will be your main replacement for the Clippings folder. You can then set up other tags with RSS feeds as secondary "clippings" folders. Instead of telling FeedDemon to "add to ____ clippings folder," you will just tag it with a specific name.

What it means is that "individual" as opposed to "big corporate" FeedDemon users are getting shafted. As an "individual" I spent money with you guys because I thought, at the time, you had the best offerings and I was prepared to pay for them. Thanks for dumping on your loyal customers.

> A pre-release of FeedDemon 3.0 which syncs with Google Reader has been available for several months, and while there are still a few kinks to work out,

So we are being bounced into using something that still doesn't work properly yet. There's still a "few kinks to work out yet" yanno.

I'm pretty happy about this. I'm planning to upgrade to FD 3 final when it comes out just in time to catch the conversion to Google Reader. I just cleared out all my Google Reader subscriptions and tags to prepare for the sync. I just don't have the history with the NewsGator brand that I do with Google Reader so this is a positive.

Personally I think this is great. I hop between Windows XP (work), 7 (home), Linux (netbook) and iPhone (on the move) and while FeedDemon and NetNewsWire look after thing nicely, I have to use the newsgator.com website on the linux netbook, and it ain't a pretty sight. Now I can use Liferea, which is a major improvement.

The one problem I have with FeedDemon v3 is the ability to use the spacebar to move to the next *unread* article has gone missing. Any chance of putting it back in for the final release??????

I have to say, "this sucks." I actually paid for FD way back when and I'm disappointed NewsGator has decided to abandon their individual customers.

Greg's email/blog post is one of the best pieces of corporate BS I've read in a while. He says things like "you spoke and we listened" and "Bottom line for you: We keep improving our FeedDemon and NetNewsWire applications" but in the same breath explains how the applications will either no longer be supported, will no longer exist or will require user changes. You mean people said "Please discontinue the product I currently use and make me switch to something else." Come on Greg, give us a little credit.

NewsGator clearly took a chance by deciding to give away their excellent products. It now appears that was a bad move on their part and the non-corporate users are bearing the brunt of that mistake.

Nick: All of this really begs the question, at this point why should I continue to use FD (or any NewsGator product) at all? If I'm syncing with Google's platform anyway and all my feeds will be available in Google Reader, why not just use that?

Also, what ever happened with the ads in FD? Are we going to see ads in version 3?

I was disappointed about the move to a free, ad-supported version of FeedDemon, too... but, really, it's a major version upgrade, right? So whatever you paid for 2.x wouldn't have got you a free upgrade to 3.0, anyway so nothing's being taken from you.

Being a long term FD customer and paying user myself I think the "what about us" question is a good one (funny that ;)

When for paid, ad free version of FD comes out will previous customers get a upgrade discount or price break?

BTW, the Ad's in v3(rc3) are very understated and reasonable. On a 1024x7 screen they are small, text only adds. On a 1280 screen, they are a little larger with a graphic (I like that the ad area adapts to app size). In both cases, they do not get in the way nor really drag the eye away from you feeds.

Personally I'd much rather have Ad's (with an option to pay a reasonable price for an ad-free version) and have FD be improved than to have it killed or die off. Free isn't free and we all have our bills to pay, even application developers... ;)

Hi
I can't access the forums at forum.newsgator.com.
I created a new account and now it shows me as logged in but any time I click the Add Topic it throws an error saying I don't have permission and it asks me to log in. But I am logged in. It shows my login name in the upper left.
I'm on FF 3.0 and WinXP. I want to report buts with FeedDemon 3.0 RC3.
I can't even send you a private email or message since I get the same error. So I'm posting here in hopes of getting through to you.
Please respond to me.

Never mind the previous post. Sorry. I finally got an email confirmation request. I never saw that one was coming. I figured there would be one but it didn't come for like 15 minutes. I'm in now that I've confirmed my account. Again, sorry for posting here.

@Brian How does a license for a *different version* of the application (or any application) have any bearing on the license for a *new version*? Any license you have is for the version you currently have installed. While synchronization will not be available, you are free to continue to use the version of FeedDemon you are currently using in perpetuity. It will no longer be supported or updated, but you have every right to continue to use the application. If you choose to upgrade to the new version, you will then be bound by the license terms for THAT version.

Even if this were still a paid app, you would still have to pay for this version, as it is a new major version.

I tried to post this bug in the Beta forum but I'm not getting the confirmation email to be able to create a post there. So here is the bug:

I am trying to use the Google Reader Shared folder. What I notice is that any clippings that I add from the “Note in Reader” bookmark don’t seem to show up within FeedDemon. I also don’t see any of the shared clippings on a second machine that is also running the 3.0.0.25 version of FeedDemon. My shared folder has 43 items in Google Reader but only 41 show up on my first machine since they were added directly using this FeedDemon instance. The other two instances were added using the "Note in Reader" bookmark created using the note on the top left of the page in GoogleReader. My second machine also running FeedDemon doesn't show anything inside the Google Reader Shared folder.

So far I understand that you don't want to continue running a sync service but I will miss the web access that I used when traveling. I'm also waiting on an iPhone update so that I can once again mark articles to read later.

I am still getting over the disappointment about the clippings feature being limited to one folder. I have about 10 that I share with my team. Although I am hoping that the tags subscriptions might provide a solution that is workable just not sure about the execution as yet.

I appreciate the hard work Nick! Personally I really need those segmented topics as shared clippings in some way shape or form.

I'm totally behind the "sync to your own server" option. I'm very wary of Google and I don't like to use it for storing personal stuff.
I suppose this option is not going to be implemented, so I guess I'll have to go look for an alternative reader, even a web-based reader would be better than Google imho. There are plenty of those around.